When playing a game of cards, the cards must be dealt to each of the players. The most common method of dealing cards for a game requires shuffling the cards and subsequently dealing the cards to each of the players in the game. Cards are shuffled prior to dealing the cards ensuring a random distribution of the cards through out the deck of cards and to the players. For example, in standard five-card stud poker utilizing a random deal, the cards are shuffled to insure a random distribution of the cards through out the deck. Once the cards have been thoroughly shuffled, the cards are then dealt to each player in the game.
When all players have been dealt the proper number of cards for the card game that they are playing, the hand rank of each player is determined by the probability of cards occurring in his hand. For example, the probability of the first card dealt to a player from a fifty-two card deck being the Ace of Spades is 1 in 52. The probability of the next card being the Ace of Diamonds is 1 in 51. The probability of the third card dealt being the Ace of Hearts is 1 in 50, etc. Randomly dealing cards makes it extremely difficult for multiple players to have hands that are competitively ranked within the same game. Typically, most players in the game are dealt hands that have low rankings which causes them to fold their hands prior to the end of the game or they will lose the game.
Randomly dealing cards results in a less exciting and a less competitive card game, such as poker, where each of the players have varying hand ranks associated with their cards. One player may have an exceptional hand while the remaining players have hands that are not very highly ranked. As a result, the winner of the game is determined by the deal of the cards and the other players have no chance in winning. A method of biasing or controlling the deal of the cards is needed to increase the excitement and competition of the game. By utilizing a biased or controlled deal in a game allows for all players of the game to have relatively close hand rankings within the game. Therefore, the excitement of the game will be increased as the players know that all hands are relatively close in rank to each other, but do not know if they have the best hand or only a good hand.